Disk Response Time

In this test IOMeter is sending a stream of requests to read and write 512-byte data blocks with a request queue of 1 for 10 minutes. The total number of requests processed by the HDD is over 60 thousand, so we get a sustained response time that doesn’t depend on the HDD’s buffer size.

The Seagate 7200.2 and Hitachi 7K200 drives have similar response times while the Fujitsu is worse in this test, being even slower than the previous-generation Seagate 7200.1.

The Hitachi 7K200 is the leader at writing, enjoying a large advantage over the second-best Fujitsu. Seagate’s drives lose the test.

As you know, the ratio of response time at writing to reading is indicative of the efficiency of a drive’s deferred writing algorithms. Seagate’s new products do not differ much from their predecessors and are inferior to their opponents in this respect.